Doctor's Worry
by Reda
Summary: /one shot/ The crew stops at a winter island. Zoro stays to watch the ship and repeats the idea of mid-winter endurance training. Chopper comes back to an empty ship and worries over Zoro. Zoro/Chopper fluff Chopper PoV


**Author Notes: **Never done Zoro-Chopper fluff except in 100-word drabbles. So let's see what comes of this. (It's so cute!)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own One Piece. Etc, etc...

**Day/Theme: **Sept 6 - "the cold only kills"

**Spoilers/Timeline: **7 crew members; doesn't fit into storyline

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Doctor's Worry

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"Why do we have to go to a winter island?" Usopp was always the first to complain.

He was standing with a heavy coat on, glaring at the snow falling all around him; his arms wrapped tightly around himself, hugging the warmth of the coat to his body as best he could. Nami just laughed at him, her gloved hands out to catch the falling snowflakes, really getting a chance to enjoy the winter weather this time. Luffy was sitting at his special seat, gazing out at the approaching island, but he wasn't wearing anything different at all. Which was quickly remedied by Sanji, who stomped up to the captain and basically forced a coat over his head, mumbling about Luffy's stupid rubbery body probably making it hard for the captain to realize it was below freezing outside.

Chopper, on the other hand, was enjoying the weather. It reminded him of home, and it was such a nice change from the Alabasta desert. Though he had learned, thanks to Zoro's blunt comments, to ignore weather for the sake of nakama, he still would prefer to stay away from such hot conditions. The winter island visit would be a nice treat.

The snow was starting to pile up on the deck, feel soft underneath his hooves. He smiled, looking around at each of his nakama. Happy to be here with them.

Robin opened the door behind him and walked onto the deck, greeting Chopper with a smile. "Enjoying the weather, Doctor-san?"

Chopper grinned back and nodded.

Zoro came out next, yawning as if he had been sleeping moments before. "Keh," he grunted after looking around at the falling white flakes. "Why wake me up for snow?"

Robin turned back to him, a soft smile on her lips yet again. "There is an island up ahead, Swordsman-san."

He blinked and moved forward out of the doorway, staring ahead, ignoring all else on deck. "Hm, suppose I'll have a chance for more endurance training."

Robin looked at him oddly, but Chopper noticed Zoro's lack of change of clothes. "Zoro put a jacket on!" He shouted, waving his arms in the air as he glared at the swordsman who was obviously trying to hide the fact that he was cold. "You could get sick!"

After staring at Chopper's worried expression, Zoro simply shrugged and went back inside. Chopper was glad that the swordsman wasn't going to argue with him over something like this. He had to treat the man enough without adding frostbite to the list.

They soon arrived at the island, pulling up to dock and splitting off into groups to go explore the town or shop. Luffy jumped off immediately, running off by himself, though Usopp followed with his 'super fast marathon running speed' because they all knew Luffy would otherwise get lost. The girls decided to shop for more outfits and Sanji volunteered to be their pack mule. Chopper wanted to look at the medicine shops to see if they had anything he could use, but he didn't want to start out alone so Nami quickly decided to pull Chopper along with them.

Thinking he would be an added burden, he tried to disagree. "B-But I don't want to take time away from you for having to stop at a different shop for me," he murmured while looking at his feet.

While Nami tried to wave it off as nothing, Robin offered something else. "I would like to see the library if there is one, so I can go with Doctor-san if Navigator-san wants Cook-san to herself."

Sanji immediately agreed to this suggestion and Nami smiled sweetly at Chopper but sent a glare to Robin. "More like _he_ wants me to _himself_."

Robin laughed lightly at the comment, but the two went off on their own, walking through the mostly empty streets. Chopper had noticed the low population of the town, and he briefly wondered if there really would be anything useful. But then he reminded himself that sometimes the smaller towns had the rarer ingredients available, simply because of location, even if the larger cities had more variety.

So he went shopping with Robin and quickly discovered that the two of them together had very little to speak about, even if they both shared the devil fruit capability. They found his shop first, being greeted by a grumpy old man who refused to talk to Chopper or even acknowledge his presence. Maybe because he was an obvious devil fruit user, or maybe because he was a child. Needless to say, Chopper did not buy anything.

They found the library, but Robin got caught up asking questions of the librarian. Unable to find any books on medicines or herbs, Chopper asked Robin if it was okay if he left her alone and he went back to the ship. She nodded with a smile and went back to playing word games with the old lady librarian.

Chopper sighed when he was alone, kicking at the snow beneath his hooves while he walked back to the ship. Maybe he could find something to be happy about with Zoro. Maybe the swordsman could be entertaining. He briefly wondered if Zoro would play in the snow with him, but he shook that thought away, reminding himself that Luffy was a better playmate because Zoro preferred to sleep.

He sighed again, making his way back to the ship, climbing onboard, feeling severely disappointed. He looked around for Zoro to see if the swordsman had listened and gotten a jacket or if the idiot had gone and gotten himself sick. He expected the latter to have happened, seeing how stubborn and stupid Zoro could be, but after searching every area of the ship, Chopper discovered that Zoro was missing.

He began to panic, running around, double checking, triple checking, but it was true that the swordsman had disappeared. Back out on deck, his ears caught the sound of a bird chirp and he lifted his head to see a bright red cardinal sitting on the edge of the ship, poking around in the snow. "Oi, have you seen a green haired man; he should have been on the ship?" Chopper asked the bird, waiting patiently for the answer.

The bird responded rather quickly, but it spoke with many descriptive words and its speech had a hard to understand slow droll; it also sounded haughty and only seemed to care about answering the question because Chopper was such a rare site and it liked to see new things - the cardinal made this point very clear. But eventually, Chopper managed to deduce the direction Zoro had gone, learning also that the swordsman had never put a coat on and had instead stayed true to the idea of "mid-winter endurance training."

Muttering to himself about how he would kill Zoro if the swordsman was dead because of such a stupid reason, Chopper gathered supplies, including a warm woolen blanket, and transformed to his full reindeer form, throwing the blanket over his back along with his pack of supplies.

He raced through the woodlands, stopping every once in a while to ask the winter animals if they had seen Zoro walking through the snow. He gave the description and got anything from confused stares to raucous laughter - he always did hate woodpeckers. His best source of information was a rather amused badger who pointed the direction and commented that the blanket seemed a good idea, since it looked like the green haired man had gone and fallen asleep while freezing to death.

Chopper worried the whole way, imagining scenes of Zoro already dead, frozen or bloody. His images usually changed not only his skin to blue or purple, but he also seemed to imagine a frozen Zoro with blue hair instead of green. Which only made him worry more.

Then he began to work up the anger. Getting mad at Zoro for not listening to him. Would he have to keep the man on a tighter leash? Demanding that it was doctor's order for him not to run around by himself? They already had a good idea that Zoro had terrible direction sense, but getting lost while terribly underdressed for the wintery weather was just idiotic.

Chopper found Zoro as the sun was beginning to set, catching sight of light green hair sitting next to the grayish-brown of a bare tree trunk. He popped out of his reindeer form and tackled the green haired swordsman, feeling the cold on the crazy man's bare chest.

"Oi, Chopper, what the hell?" Zoro exclaimed, his voice betraying no hint of being cold or otherwise sick from overexposure. But then he apparently spotted the blanket, reaching around the reindeer to wrap the woolen blanket around them both. "Ah, so warm," Zoro muttered and then he began to _snore_!

Chopper felt his frustration and worry explode as he transformed into heavy point and slammed a fist against the green haired swordsman. The hit was so successful, the tree behind Zoro shuddered and cracked slightly at the impact.

"Oof, Chopper, what gives?"

Chopper clenched his fists and shouted back at him. "You made me worried! You're supposed to listen to your doctor! I said put a jacket on and you went and took more clothes off! How am I supposed to take care of you if you don't ever listen to me and you always go running off for some stupid reason that doesn't make any sense!"

Rubbing his stomach, Zoro stared up at Chopper with unblinking eyes until the doctor finished his rant. Then he said. "Oi, transform back."

Chopper shoved his finger out, pointing in frustration. "Why would I do that? Don't you have anything to say for going against what your doctor says? I can't-!"

Zoro's voice grew hard and his eyebrows seemed to lower even further if that were possible. "Just do it."

Unable to fight back against the swordsman when he was that serious, Chopper hung his head and did as told, making him feeling like a younger brother losing an argument just because the older brother looked scarier when angry.

Zoro didn't waste any time, reaching out and pulling the reindeer doctor into his lap, wrapping the blanket around them both again. "There's no reason to worry. I won't die."

Trying to fight the feeling in his chest that told him he was happy sitting in Zoro's lap, Chopper muttered, "How can you know that?"

Zoro scoffed. "For one, I have you."

"But..."

With a sigh, Zoro wrapped his arms around Chopper, hugging him close, before standing up and putting a rather confused and embarrassed little reindeer on his shoulders - like a little kid getting a ride from an older brother. "Let's go back. You'll have to show me. Someone moved the ship."

Chopper wanted to snap something back about Zoro just having terrible direction sense, but he bit his lip and let his cheek rest against the soft green hair. He rubbed against a few icicles, but let himself ignore it; he would deal with Zoro's health - since he wasn't in immediate danger - when they got back to the ship. For now, he just wanted to relax and enjoy himself.

The snow always did look best at dusk, drifting lazily from the sky to disappear into the growing darkness before it appeared again before hitting the ground. Sometimes flakes would twinkle and add an effect, like lights turning on in the darkness beneath stars, not as consistent but beautiful all the same.

Chopper smiled and started to drift asleep, though he had to keep his eyes open and make sure Zoro was walking the right way. This was what he had missed about winter. This companionship was what he had wanted to share in with the snow. It made him feel warm sitting on Zoro's shoulders, forgetting about how the swordsman had worried him so much earlier.

Then Zoro had to go and ruin it. "Oi, next time would you feel better coming with me?"

He transformed and gave Zoro a good punch in the face, sending the swordsman sprawling into the snow. "There won't be a next time!"

But inside he laughed, as did Zoro, who sneezed once before standing back up to continue walking. Maybe the green haired brotherly-figure had only been teasing. Then again, it was Zoro, his most frustrating patient, and yet Chopper still found himself glad for it - glad that Zoro trusted in him that much.

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_A/N: Mehhhhh I'm so sick while writing this, finding it hard to think straight. I wish I could have Chopper come make me feel better. Being sick sucks._


End file.
